RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/12/vladimir-bukovsky-the-dissident-who-won/

Vladimir Bukovsky, the great anti-Soviet dissident, died on Sunday, November 4. Five days later the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was celebrated throughout Europe but especially in the cities of Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and points east whose liberation had been entrenched by that symbolic event on November 9, 1989. 

Some of Bukovsky’s obituarists saw a poignancy in the near coincidence of the two dates because they believe the democratic promise of 1989 has not been fully realised in a “Europe whole and free”. But I don’t think Bukovsky, whom I was fortunate to know as a friend, felt quite that sentiment.

He undoubtedly believed strongly that the promise of 1991 when the Soviet Union disintegrated had been illusory. Admittedly, the USSR was no more, its constituent republics had regained their independence, the Communist Party had been defeated and discredited, and a revived Russian national state under Boris Yeltsin was restoring democratic government. All these, especially the independence of the Baltic republics (which has been sustained), obviously delighted him.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/12/jew-hate-germany-stephen-brown/

Last month, a woman was attacked in Bavaria for being Jewish. A man heard her two sons speaking Hebrew and recognized them as being Israeli. He then yelled in Arabic “Jew” and threw a rock, striking the woman in the head. Fortunately, the woman was only lightly injured.

A similar incident occurred before a discotheque in Germany. A man was speaking Hebrew with friends when a stranger, for no apparent reason, punched him in the face. The attacker fled. 

“On the continent things are happening we haven’t seen any more since 1933,” said Berlin lawyer Nathan Gelbert before a committee of the Israeli parliament in a special sitting, as reported in Die Welt newspaper.

According to a study by the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which represents a hundred countries, “every fourth German harbors…anti-Semitic thoughts.” But the study does not break down by ethnic group or religion those who think thus.

In July last summer, the study polled 1,300 people. Other results include 41 per cent think Jews talk too much about the holocaust, 28 per cent believe Jews have too much power in the economy, 26 per cent believe they have too much power in world politics and 48 per cent believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Germany.

According to the study, “there is a growing anti-Semitism perceived in the overwhelming majority of the population.”

https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/12/article/bullets-for-bodies-a-sick-twist-in-iran

There are protests and riots across Iran, brutally put down by Iranian security forces and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC); the government is charging families for the bullets used to kill their loved ones before releasing bodies to them. Inflation is rampant and economic growth is negative. Sanctions on Iranian oil shipments have led Iran to steal Iraqi oil, one cause of the anti-Iranian riots across Iraq.

Yet, Iran continues to arm its proxies and allies with missiles that can strike Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan and Israel. Ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, controlled by Iran’s Quds Force, are being spread across the region.

The Quds Force, commanded by Major General Qasem Soleimani, is part of the IRGC that works with Houthis in Yemen, with pro-Iranian government and government-recognized Shiite militias in Iraq, with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

While all of this aggressiveness may be the outward explosion of a regime in trouble, the transfer of these missiles and drones threatens not only some of America’s closest friends but threatens American forces in the region. Iranian general Allahnoor Noorollahi says Iran has 21 US military bases directly in its sights.

According to Axios, US bases in the Middle East include:

• Bahrain: More than 7,000 US troops, mostly naval forces, are there to maintain Persian Gulf security.
• Iraq: About 5,200 US troops were in the northern part of Iraq as of January, per the Defense Department. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they were there help combat ISIS. The number may drop as the Iraqi military has said US troops have to leave.
• Jordan: About 2,795 US troops support operations to defeat ISIS and promote regional stability.
• Kuwait: Over 13,000 American troops are stationed in Kuwait and the US Central Command (CENTCOM) forward headquarters is there as well.
• Oman:   The country has hosted US operations since 1980 and has assisted the US in combating ISIS. A few hundred Americans are there now.
• Qatar: As many as 13,000 US troops are in Qatar, with plans to expand. The Gulf nation supports US efforts to combat regional terrorism.
• Saudi Arabia: The Trump administration announced on Nov. 19 that approximately 3,000 US troops will be deployed to Saudi Arabia to protect the region “against hostile action by Iran and its proxy forces.”
• Syria: CENTCOM does not disclose the current number of troops, but DOD has said about 2,000 US service personnel were in Syria, and the Military Times reportsapproximately 800 might still be there to protect oil resources.
• Turkey: The number of US troops in Turkey is unclear, but the country’s strategic location makes it valuable for transporting arms and people. The US has air bases in Izmir and Incirlik as part of NATO.
• United Arab Emirates: 5,000 US troops are stationed at air and naval bases.

The roots of the December 6, 2019 murder of three US soldiers on the Pensacola Naval Air Station, by an Islamic Saudi terrorist, are independent of US policy in the Middle East and beyond, as are all previous cases of anti-US and anti-Western Islamic terrorism. 

For instance, the launching of the anti-US terror stampede by Iran’s Ayatollahs was initiated in 1979, while the US supported the Ayatollahs ascension to power in Teheran and betrayed the Shah of Iran. Moreover, Erdogan’s intense support of Muslim Brotherhood terrorism, which has targeted the US and all pro-US Arab regimes, is aimed at advancing Erdogan’s vision to reestablish the Ottoman Empire and undermine US interests, in spite of Turkey’s NATO membership and the multi-year, mega-billion dollar US investment in Turkey’s national security since 1947.

Islamic rage and anti-Western terrorism are not driven by economic, social, or educational goals.  The roots of the Islamic rage against Western culture, in general, and the US – the leader of Western democracies – in particular, are nurtured by a worldview, which precedes the 1776 independence of the USA and the 1620 landing of the Early Pilgrims in New England.

According to Prof. Bernard Lewis, a world-leading expert on Islam and the Middle East, the anti-Western Islamic rage represents an early edition of a clash of civilizations: “If the fighters in the war for Islam, the holy war ‘in the path of God,’ are fighting for God, it follows that their opponents are fighting against God…. The army is God’s army and the enemy is God’s enemy…. In the classical Islamic view, to which many Muslims are beginning to return, the world and all mankind are divided into two: the House of Islam… and the House of Unbelief, or the House of War, which it is the duty of Muslims ultimately to bring to Islam…. Muslims from an early date recognized a genuine rival – a competing world religion…. This was Christendom…. The struggle between these rival systems has now lasted for some 14 centuries.  It began with the advent of Islam, in the 7th century…. It has consisted of a long series of attacks and counterattacks, Jihads and crusades, conquests and re-conquests…. America had become the archenemy, the incarnation of evil, the diabolic opponent of all that is good, and specifically, for Muslims, of Islam….”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-principled-dissident-turns-despotic-premier-11575937539?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident turned politician Aung San Suu Kyi will again capture the world’s attention this week. To those who still remember her as a prisoner of conscience with a serene smile, the reason may come as a surprise. As Myanmar’s civilian leader, Ms. Suu Kyi has taken on a new mantle: spokesperson for mass atrocity.

Ms. Suu Kyi will appear Tuesday to lead her country’s defense against allegations of genocide before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Myanmar military has persecuted the country’s ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority for years. During two brutal ethnic-cleansing campaigns in 2016-17, the military reportedly oversaw the murder of people in their homes, the rape of women and girls, and the arson of entire communities. In the aftermath, more than 800,000 Rohingya have fled and sought refuge in Bangladesh.

After Ms. Suu Kyi’s 15 years under house arrest for criticizing the regime, many outsiders, especially her longtime supporters in the West, thought that she would use her position of power and moral authority to curb the military’s excesses. Instead, Ms. Suu Kyi is defending the crackdown, claiming that Rohingya terrorists are creating an “iceberg” of misinformation about the military’s treatment of the group.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/12/08/thousands-of-british-jews-and-supporters-hold-major-rally-against-antisemitism-in-london/

Thousands of British Jews and their supporters came together for a major rally against antisemitism on Sunday in London’s Parliament Square.

Concerns over antisemitism have skyrocketed in recent years, with the overwhelming majority of British Jews coming to see the opposition Labour party as institutionally antisemitic.

British Jews and their allies rally against antisemitism in London’s Parliament Square, December 8, 2019. Photo: Courtesy of the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Thousands of British Jews and their supporters came together for a major rally against antisemitism on Sunday in London’s Parliament Square.

Concerns over antisemitism have skyrocketed in recent years, with the overwhelming majority of British Jews coming to see the opposition Labour party as institutionally antisemitic.

British Jews have expressed particular trepidation about the possibility of a Labour victory in the upcoming December 12 elections. Though the Conservative party still leads, Labour has narrowed the gap in recent polls.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3041172/after-half-year-anti-government-unrest-800000-marchers-take?utm_medium=email&utm_

Organisers claim another massive turnout, while police say it peaked at 183,000
Procession from Causeway Bay to Central largely peaceful until nightfall, when protesters hurled petrol bombs at court buildings

Hundreds of thousands flooded Hong Kong’s commercial heart on Sunday to mark six months of their fight against the government, saying that while city residents had become more united and won international support, officials still failed to meet their demands for greater democracy and accountability.

The march was largely peaceful until nightfall, when some radical protesters hurled petrol bombs at the entrance of the High Court and Court of Final Appeal. That came after 
police confiscated weapons The front, which had police approval to march until 10pm, called time on the action at about 8.15pm. Its leaders said they felt pressured by the large police presence, accusing the force of intimidating participants in Central, where small stand-offs between officers and protesters occurred.

 including knives and a Glock semi-automatic pistol in raids before the rally began.

Organiser the Civil Human Rights Front estimated 800,000 people marched from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Chater Road in Central. Police said turnout peaked at 183,000.

“The political message is clear. People are resilient and people are persistent with the five demands,” said Eric Lai Yan-ho, deputy convenor of the front, urging Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to meet their requests, which include an independent inquiry into police use of force at protests.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15257/europe-deradicalization-programs

The latest attack in London was a lethal mix of religious dissimulation and Western naïveté. It also, one hopes, buries all the British illusions of deradicalizing jihadists. As the Times reported, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), the so-called “nudge unit” formerly part of the Cabinet Office, had examined 33 deradicalization programs across the UK and found that only two were supposedly successful.

France had already tried it out. A bipartisan report in the French Senate had condemned the French deradicalization program as a “total fiasco”….

A recent UK government report warned that British imams in 48 Islamic schools have been promoting violence and intolerance. It is British society that must be deradicalized, not the jihadists.

Usman Khan apparently saw Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones as “unbelievers”, not as “rehabilitators”. If we do not change our rules of engagement, more of the same will follow.

It was a tragedy of good intentions. “Jack Merritt died in the London Bridge attack. Don’t forget what he stood for”, Emma Goldberg wrote in The New York Times. Merritt was one of the two victims of Usman Khan, an Islamic terrorist who struck on London Bridge on November 29. The other victim was Saskia Jones, a student at the conference targeted by the jihadist. They both dreamed of working to save and protect their murderer.

London had been hosting the fifth anniversary of Learning Together, an event in which ex-prisoners, staff members, students and criminology experts came from all over the country to celebrate the success of their initiative to deradicalize jihadists. Khan had been present as a model of the recovery program. In 2012, Khan was sentenced to prison for plotting to blow up first the London Stock Exchange, then London’s Mayor at the time, Boris Johnson, and then the London Eye ferris wheel. According to the Daily Telegraph, Learning Together used Khan as a “case study” on how reintegration programs in society work. He had even written a poem and a note of thanks to the organizers, on a computer made available to him by his tutors.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15261/britain-election-antisemitism

Although all the parties standing for election have delivered broad claims on key issues such as the economy, social care, health, and more, everybody knows that this election is, at heart, about Brexit.

Today’s Labour Party remains far behind the Tories in the polls. By mid-November, Labour stood at 28% while the Conservatives were at 39%.

“The claims that the [Labour] party is “doing everything” it reasonably can to tackle anti-Jewish racism and that it has “investigated every single case”, are a mendacious fiction. According to the Jewish Labour Movement, there are at least 130 outstanding cases before the party, some dating back years, and thousands more have been reported but remain unresolved.” — Ephraim Mirvis, Britain’s Chief Rabbi.

The political situation in the UK is in a state of near chaos. A General Election was called in October for 12 December. Whereas such elections are normally run between whichever party is in power (currently the Tory, or Conservative Party, with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister) and the loyal opposition (in this case the Labour Party), the carefully balanced routine that in the past has allowed conservative and socialist parties to come to power has now collapsed.

Among other things, this election is confused in a race between the Tories, Labour, the fast-growing anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (third-largest in the UK overall), and the newly formed Brexit Party.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-root-for-boris-johnson-11575837887?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The outcome of Thursday’s British general election will have a profound bearing on the future of U.S.-U.K. relations. If Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson wins, Washington can look forward to a serious upgrade in its relations with London, not least because Mr. Johnson appears to enjoy a good personal accord with President Trump.

A victory for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose quasi-Marxist politics and visceral anti-Americanism have been very much in evidence during the election campaign, would create serious tensions in trans-Atlantic relations.

From Washington’s perspective, the most important consideration is the impact the election outcome will have on the fate of the Brexit negotiations. The Trump administration enthusiastically supports Britain’s plans to leave the European Union, as it means the U.K. would be able to negotiate new trade agreements with the U.S. without interference from the EU.

The protracted Brexit negotiations, which began after a 2016 referendum, have been seriously undermined by the previous Conservative government’s minority status in the House of Commons. Mr. Johnson’s first priority, therefore, is to seek a working majority, a feat not achieved by the Conservatives since former Prime Minister David Cameron secured a modest majority in the 2015 election. It soon disappeared after his successor, Theresa May, called an election in 2017. She expected to bolster her majority but lost it instead. That severely limited her ability to complete Brexit and cost her the premiership this summer. CONTINUE AT SITE